Anyone Else Thinking of Moving Out of Bay Area? (San Jose: neighborhood, buy)

[dburbs1975]

there are lifestyle choices to make, not one single right answer.

[bentobox34]

Originally Posted by RecentGrad1

Rent increases of 10% a year? You've GOT to be kidding me. My rent finally just increased 5% and I've been in my current apartment 2 years (first increase so far). If rent increases too much I can always move to a smaller place (or even leave the area). No such option with a condo, as they're very hard to sell and you're screwed if you need to sell in a down market.

Yes. Overall, Santa Clara County rents increased by 10% total from 2005 to 2012 link, pg. 3. Over those 7 years, rent went down twice, stayed the same one year and increased four years. People forget that the market goes up and down. The likelihood that rent would increase 10% per year for 10 years straight is extremely low.

[justinbro2002]

Originally Posted by neutrino78x

This is something I plan to do, even if I can afford the mortgage on my own. I would totally go on craigslist housing wanted and offer people rooms for a while. It seems a lot of people on here can't stand the idea of shared housing, but I enjoy having roommates. As long as everybody has their own room. If you have to share rooms, that's where it starts to become undesirable. But having roommates is cool.

having roommates is cool until you start a family or reach 30 years old which ever comes first. If you're 50 and have roommates and you didn't just go through a messy divorce there is something wrong.

[justinbro2002]

Originally Posted by Californian12345

I've lived in the Bay Area my whole life. We currently live in Willow Glen and we work up the peninsula. As our kids are getting a little older (4 and 2) we are starting to look at schools and our lives in general. We're finding that perhaps the Bay Area may not be all it's cracked up to be; crime is getting worse and worse, especially in San Jose, traffic is terrible, and if we want to move closer to work, it's $2m for a house thats 2500 sq ft built in 1955, it's getting very crowded and expensive everywhere you look.

We're throwing around the idea of moving out of state to get away from it all and get a better quality of life for the price.

Are we crazy? Is anyone else thinking this way? Does anyone else feel like the allure of the Bay is fading?

the bay area is very large and generally the farther you get from san Francisco or the peninsula the cheaper houses are you can still find homes in good school districts for 1\3 or 1\4 of that 2 million dollar peninsula price tag.

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by bentobox34

Yes. Overall, Santa Clara County rents increased by 10% total from 2005 to 2012 link, pg. 3. Over those 7 years, rent went down twice, stayed the same one year and increased four years. People forget that the market goes up and down. The likelihood that rent would increase 10% per year for 10 years straight is extremely low.

We lived in upscale apartments in SF (2006-2009) and in Mountain View (2009-2010). In both complexes, we were seeing double digit rent increases. In SF, we had an increase of 13% and then 15%. I realize that we had self selected to live in high end places in desirable locations and that we were a captive customer (e.g., its easier to raise rents for an existing tenant than to attract new tenants with the higher prices). However, I don't think this is unheard of at all.

[dmode]

As someone who lived in Phoenix for 3 miserable years and then promptly came back to the Bay Area, it is a case of grass is greener. I personally, would trade a smaller house for job security, opportunities, growth, wine country, outdoors, mountains, and oceans etc. With dual income in Bay Area, it is not that hard to go over $200K in annual income. I think I can live with that.

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by dmode

As someone who lived in Phoenix for 3 miserable years and then promptly came back to the Bay Area, it is a case of grass is greener. I personally, would trade a smaller house for job security, opportunities, growth, wine country, outdoors, mountains, and oceans etc. With dual income in Bay Area, it is not that hard to go over $200K in annual income. I think I can live with that.

Why is living in Phoenix so miserable? I lived there for 2 years and loved it. Summers are miserable, but the rest of the year is gorgeous weather. If you can get a pretty good job, you can actually live quite well, in an upscale area of Scottsdale.

[neutrino78x]

Originally Posted by justinbro2002

having roommates is cool until you start a family or reach 30 years old which ever comes first.

I'm 37 and I think roommates are great. Like I said I'm a city mouse, I want the city lifestyle, and that basically means roommates, unless you make a lot of money.

Of course, in the USN on submarines, I had a lot of roommates. You live in close quarters on the boat. My first boat was a Trident, the USS Florida which at the time was SSBN-728 (now it's SSGN-728, tomahawks instead of Trident missiles). She is 560 feet long and there are about 120 people aboard (officer and enlisted). Enlisted lives in bunkrooms that have 9 people each:

http://paulshambroomart.com/art/nucl...ent%20crew.jpg

Officers live two people for each stateroom:

http://cmsimg.navytimes.com/apps/pbc...ef=AR&Border=0

There are two crews, so one crew stays in port for 3 months while the other crew takes the boat to sea, and when they come back, the crew that was in port takes the boat to sea for 3 months. In between you live in the barracks (unless you're taking BAH to live off base), and when I was in, that was two people to a room. It's a big room and we usually used our bookcases to partition the room.

As a civilian, when I lived in downtown San Jose, I had a room to myself and the other two guys shared the living room.

Roommates give you someone to talk to and hang out with and eat with, etc. Living in close quarters for long periods of time -- the longest time I have spent underwater on the boat is 87 days -- teaches you to at least tolerate people, even if you're not necessarily friends with everybody.

[neutrino78x]

Originally Posted by roadwarrior101

Why is living in Phoenix so miserable? I lived there for 2 years and loved it. Summers are miserable, but the rest of the year is gorgeous weather. If you can get a pretty good job, you can actually live quite well, in an upscale area of Scottsdale.

Dude that's because your version of "live quite well" is "have a large house". Some of us want to be able to go out and do stuff other than just sit in our large house.

How long did you have to drive to go to the grocery store in your upscale area of Scottsdale? In Downtown San Jose it was a 15 minute walk at most.

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by neutrino78x

Dude that's because your version of "live quite well" is "have a large house". Some of us want to be able to go out and do stuff other than just sit in our large house.

How long did you have to drive to go to the grocery store in your upscale area of Scottsdale? In Downtown San Jose it was a 15 minute walk at most.

Have you been to downtown Scottsdale? Sounds like you're talking without any first hand knowledge. Tons of shops, restaurants, nightlife, etc. within walking distance. And I have to say that the nightlife is MUCH better than SJ. They also have built a lot high rise apartments/condos.